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Groups question process on harbour redevelopment plan

After a year-long series of workshops, consultations with the public and various ideas floated by community groups, city council will be voting on the future of the Kingston Penitentiary-Portsmouth Olympic Harbour property on Tuesday evening.

But some local groups are wondering why city council is rushing to make a decision on the project when some heritage aspects of the property haven’t been properly discussed.

Some of the groups wanting a say in the redevelopment of the site are the Frontenac Heritage Foundation, Coalition of Kingston Communities, Friends of the Penitentiary Museum, the Hatters Bay Project and the Portsmouth District Association.

The Frontenac Heritage Foundation and Coalition of Kingston Communities are both wondering why city council needs to make a quick decision on the property.

“This critical piece of Kingston’s waterfront is deserving of more review. Making a hurried decision over the summer on the future use of this complex and expansive property is not right,” a news release from the Frontenac Heritage Foundation said. “The process for developing this vision has been flawed from the start.”

Both groups are concerned that certain buildings on the property that are not designated heritage will be torn down, they want the whole site designated.

“There should at least be a discussion on all that before the proposal comes through,” Christine Sypnowich, chair of the coalition, said.

She calls the redevelopment of the area an ambitious project that the city will have to live with it when it’s completed.

“It will seal the fate for that site for generations to come,” she said Wednesday. “It’s really crucial that the process by which the decision is reached is impeccable.”

“What’s the rush? Why rush it through in the middle of the summer. Why not take your time and do it properly. Once you destroy heritage, it’s gone forever.”

Shirley Bailey, president of the Frontenac Heritage Foundation, said it’s bad timing now for council to go ahead and make a recommendation on the vision without input from Heritage Kingston, the city’s municipal heritage committee.

“It’s been an exhaustive visioning exercising, but the part of it that has not been thorough is this evaluation of the heritage buildings on these two very important properties,” she said.

“What we would like to see at the minimum is that council would defer this decision on Tuesday and have it referred back to the Heritage Kingston Committee, where they should have been involved through this entire process.

“I really hope they don’t feel they’re in a great hurry to make a decision because both sites are quite large, they’re waterfront property, so of course you really want to get these decisions right.”

Despite a year-long visioning process, Sypnowich said more public consultation should have been done and the planners in the visioning process did not give adequate consideration for heritage buildings on the property.

“For a site of extraordinary historic value, for the nation as well as Kingston, it is very disappointing to see a faulty public engagement process and such inadequate attention to heritage conservation,” she said. “The city isn’t giving proper due attention to public engagement and not following the proper process for heritage designation.”

The area in question totals about 20.4 hectares, with about one-quarter of it being water.

Included in the visioning exercise were two hectares of city-owned property, the 7.9-hectare harbour owned by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the 10.5-hectare prison site owned by Correctional Service Canada.

The prison closed in 2013. In 2015, CSC announced it planned to dispose of the former prison site. The process is being handled by Canada Lands Company, the federal Crown corporation that spearheaded the visioning exercise along with city staff.

Since the penitentiary’s closure, many ideas have been generated locally for the site, including an elite sailing centre and/or a prison museum similar to the Alcatraz site near San Francisco.

Some of the visioning for the property includes a continuous water’s-edge promenade, open spaces, a range of uses that include tourism, culture, commercial, office space, retail and residential apartments.

At the final visioning exercise in early June, planners proposed a controversial 25-storey condominium for the property. Planners said having a building of that height on the site makes the project financially viable.

The Friends of the Prison Museum want the property’s look and feel of a prison to be maintained and would like to see most of the walls stay up.

“I know some of the discussion is let’s get the walls down, let’s open it up, a beautiful view and wonderful waterfront, terrific,” Simonne Ferguson, chair of the group said in a February interview. “But we have one chance to do this and if we take those walls down, it’s gone.

“It’s just another limestone building when you take the walls down.”

The Hatter’s Bay project is led by five prominent Kingstonians, including former mayor Harvey Rosen, George Hood, George Jackson, Dr. Michael de la Roche and John Curtis.

The group sees the penitentiary property as a prime site for Canada’s first sailing centre of excellence as well as a wind research facility, prison museum, condominium development, a hotel similar to the Liberty Hotel in Boston that was built from a former prison, along with shops and lots of outdoor public space.

The Hatter’s Bay group has proposed that no building on the site be higher than the centre dome of the penitentiary.

Group member Curtis said they have a large Canadian chartered bank expressing serious interest in financing the project should it go ahead with their vision.